Your Honor (2024) – K-drama Episode 5 Recap & Review

Episode 5

Episode 5 of Your Honor begins with a flashback to nine years ago. Gang-heon is told that Sang-hyuk has caused a mess. He finds his son in a club, all bloodied up and surrounded by dead bodies. Sang-hyuk says they were disrespectful to Gang-heon.

At present, Pan-ho shoots _ dead as he’s about to speak Ho-young’s name. He falls to his knees afterwards, shocked. Before leaving, Gang-heon tells Pan-ho to save Sang-hyuk or else Gang-heon will kill him. Gang-heon’s secretary, Chang-hyeok, tells Pan-ho to send weekly updates about the situation.

Pan-ho is shaken by everything but collects himself. He then calls Jang Chae-rim and asks her to meet him. She arrives and he asks her how the case is going. She brings up Pan-ho’s wife’s death two years ago. She believes the verdict of that case was wrong. Pan-ho says that it was the law and they have to follow it. He then asks to see Chang Heon.

Chae-rim takes him to the place where Sang-hyuk is being questioned. We then see Pan-ho back home, drinking. He then gets a call from Chae-rim, who says that Sang-hyuk will soon be transferred to the prosecution – specifically to Prosecutor Kang So-yeong, who is known for being against corruption. She also tells Pan-ho that it’s up to him to put Sang-hyuk in prison now.

In the morning after Ho-young leaves, Pan-ho calls Chang-hyeok. He wants to speak to the chairman. Chang-hyeok turns out to be right outside his house. They go to see Gang-heon, where Pan-ho discusses the case. He tells Gang-heon to do something about the evidence – the gun, the video and the witness statement.

Sometime later, a young man comes to make a report at the police station. He claims to have seen the shooting but can’t be sure it was Sang-hyuk. Chae-rim correctly assumes someone sent him.

Simultaneously, Gang-heon’s men find out that Jo Bin gave Sang-hyuk the gun. Gang-heon visits Jo Mi-yeon and tells her to hand over Jo Bin. When she doesn’t immediately do so, Gang-heon threatens her entire establishment and leaves. At the police station, Chae-rim argues with her superior officer who is clearly afraid of Woo One. Meanwhile, her officers end up finding Jo Bin’s dead body.

Chae-rim and Pan-ho meet for a meal and the detective is clearly frustrated by how many people are dying because of this. She says she respects Pan-ho for not wavering in the face of Woo One. The words hit Pan-ho quite hard. After dinner, Chae-rim is quite drunk and calls for a driver. Pan-ho seems to suspect the driver of being someone from Woo One.

The next day at work, Pan-ho gets distracted even while at court. He goes to the police station and when Chae-rim isn’t there, he goes to her house but nobody answers. Inside, the house is a mess and the police call for an investigation into Chae-rim’s absence.

Pan-ho finds Gang-heon and angrily confronts him for attacking Chae-rim. Gang-heon tells him to contact him only through Chang-hyeok and leaves. The next thing we see is Pan-ho tied up and getting beaten up by Chang-hyeok. There’s a lot of talk about laws and who they are meant to protect.

Later at night, Pan-ho makes a call to Yi-hwan. They meet at a public event since Pan-ho is being tailed. Pan-ho tells Yi-hwan about Gang-heon and their deal. But he doesn’t trust Gang-heon to let him live even after Sang-hyuk’s case. He wants Yi-hwan’s help with that. Later, Yi-hwan meets Jo Mi-yeon and tells her to help him get Pan-ho into the Blue House.

Prosecutor Kang So-yeong arrives at the police station and demands to know why she only got Sang-hyuk’s case report when it is connected all the way to Sang-hyeon’s death.

The detectives agree to give her the other case files. She then visits Gang-heon’s house, introducing herself as the woman who locked up Gang-heon in prison. Inside, Gang-heon’s wife berates him for smiling and chatting with his daughter even as his son is dead. She storms off and Chang-hyeok then announces that So-yeong is here to see him.

Gang-heon meets So-yeong and the latter promises to dig into every single death related to this case. Gang-heon takes the challenge in his stride and announces that justice doesn’t quite run the world.

When a cab picks So-yeong up from Gang-heon’s house, the driver says that someone wants to meet So-yeong and give her information. He takes her to see Jo Mi-yeon, who says she can help So-yeong catch Gang-heon.

Elsewhere, a random person makes a report to the police station. He says he knows who killed Sang-taek’s family in the explosion. He names two people but they pretend to be foreigners who don’t speak Korean. Meanwhile, Choi Myeong-ho, the chief of police, relates everything to Gang-heon.

Chang-hyeok then brings a bunch of photographs to Gang-heon. They are of Pan-ho meeting Yi-hwan and of So-yeong meeting Mi-yeon. In the morning, Chang-hyeok drives his car up to Pan-ho. Pan-ho gets inside. He meets Gang-heon who throws the photographs at Pan-ho.

Elsewhere, So-yeong has got the two foreigners from earlier to the prosecutor’s office. She also brings in the two detectives working under Chae-rim and declares that they’ll be working together, in secret, so Gang-heon’s rats can’t find them. Afterwards, So-yeong and group go to Gang-heon’s residence and arrest his wife.

Gang-heon demands that Pan-ho tell him what’s going on. At the end of Your Honor Episode 5, he gets a phone call about his wife’s arrest and realises what’s happened.

The Episode Review

Your Honor Episode 5 expands on the tussle between Pan-ho and Gang-heon. While it may seem that Pan-ho has to work for Gang-heon, a midway twist reveals that he doesn’t trust the mob boss to keep his word. And so he makes a move against Gang-heon. This is a first for Pan-ho, who has so far allowed himself to be pushed around in order to protect his son. It’s interesting to see the judge go on the offensive.

There’s a lot of discussion about morality, law and justice. I usually enjoy such debates between characters but at the moment, Your Honor is keeping these discussions at the surface level. As such, the overall plot is a lot more interesting than the conversations themselves.

This episode is an intriguing one and with So-yeong, it adds one more formidable player to the field. There is a bit of choppy editing, like in the scene where Pan-ho is tied and getting beat up that comes across as random. But on the whole, this drama continues to be an interesting watch.